BanglaCricket Article

From October 14, 2004 starts the busy itinerary of New Zealand Tour in Bangladesh with the three-day warm up match between the Kiwis and BCB XI at the BKSP ground.

New Zealand Tour and a Reality

by Saber Ahmed

Published: 8th October, 2004

From October 14, 2004 starts the busy itinerary of New Zealand Tour in Bangladesh with the three-day warm up match between the Kiwis and BCB XI at the BKSP ground. After a break of a couple of days the first test match will start on October 19, 2004 at the BNS, Dhaka. On the verge of this tour which will contain two test matches and three ODIs, let us have a look into the real picture. A real picture of these two teams, their strength and a comparison.

New Zealand

New Zealand was granted the test status back in late twenties and played their debut test match at Christchurch against England in 1929. They hold the record for the worst start to Test cricket to date, winning their first Test after 26 years at their 45th attempt, against West Indies in 1955/56 at Auckland.

New Zealand first ever equaled their series 2-2 against South Africa in 1962 after 32 years from their debut and won a series 1-0 against Pakistan in 1970, for which they had to wait for a pretty long 40 years. New Zealand was considered as an underdog till the end of twentieth century but has steadily improved for much of the last four years.

They had their highest rating in history with a rating of 1047 points, set during their golden era while Hadlee was playing in March 1990. After defeating India 2-0 in December 2002, New Zealand climbed up to the fifth position in the rating. However, their series loss in England has seen a sharp drop in their rating to 1022 points and they are currently ranked seventh, ten points behind Sri Lanka. New Zealand's second golden age may be heading to a close as star players, such as Cairns, begin to retire lately.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh became the tenth member of the elite test family and played their debut test match at Dhaka against India in November, 2000. Bangladesh currently holds the lowest rating by any team in history (793 points). The previous holder of this record was New Zealand with 902 points in July 1965. Bangladesh has set a worst introduction to Test cricket, with only three draws and no victories in their first 30 Tests. At this time, Bangladesh should earn a victory sooner rather than later to ease past that most un-welcome record from New Zealand.

These two teams met twice in the lone series in New Zealand in 2001. New Zealand won both of the matches convincingly with a margin of an innings and 54 runs in the first Test in Hamilton and that of an innings and 74 runs in the second test in Wellington.

The above statistics and information are brought here to appraise these two teams by their merit. The New Zealand Team has the batsmen and bowlers with much higher ratings, experience and skill over their Bangladeshi counterparts and the recent records are also convincingly in their favor.

There are high expectations among the Bangladeshi fans on their home series and dreaming of an 'upsets' against the Kiwis. Here I have tried to draw the real picture of these two teams to be more realistic about our expectations and dreams. Nevertheless, we do always expect better performance from our beloved Team and wish to achieve some greater momentum at every step to our upward journey in Test Cricket.

The author is a distinguished member of banglacricket forum and goes by the nick "sam" - editors